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Rain Garden Plant List Suggestions

last modified September 05, 2008

Start your rain garden with Scott LaFleur’s plant suggestions

Be sure to see the Garden's own rain garden as a demonstration of sustainable gardening. 

Mostly Sunny 

Lower wetter section

Astilbe biternata                                 False goat’s beard                              

Carex grayi                                        Gray’s sedge

Chelone glabra                                   White turtlehead

Ilex verticillata                                   Winterberry

Iris virginica                                       Blue flag iris

Lobelia cardinalis                               Cardinal flower

Lobelia siphilitica                                Great blue Lobelia

Panicum virgatum ‘Dallas blues’          Panic grass ‘Dallas blues’

Pycnanthemum muticum                   Broad-leaved mountain mint

Symphyotrichum turbinellum              Prairie aster

 

Mid range medium moisture

Coreopsis rosea                                   Pink tickseed

Iris cristata                                          Crested iris

Iris setosa cv Nana                              Dwarf arctic blue flag

Phlox glaberrima                                  Smooth phlox

Upper edge low moisture

Asarum caudatum                               Western wild ginger

Carex platyphylla                                 Broad leaf sedge

Spigelia marilandica                             Indian pink

Viola labradorica                                  Labrador violet

Waldsteinia lobata                               Piedmont strawberry

 

Sunny Rain Garden Plants

 

Lower wetter section

Woody Plants

Aronia floribunda                                Chokecherry

Clethra alnifolia                                   Summersweet

Ilex verticillata                                     Winterberry

Herbaceous Plants

Asclepias incarnata                             Swamp milkweed

Campanula americana                        Tall American bell flower

Iris cr                                                 Iris species

Lobelia ssp                                         Lobelia species

Panicum virgatum ssp                         Panic grass species

Pycnanthemum muticum                    Mountain mint

Rudbeckia subtomentosa                    Sweet coneflower

Symphyotrichum turbinellus                Prairie aster

 

Mid range medium moisture plants

Carex platyphylla                                 Broad leaf sedge

Helenium autumnale                           Sneeze weed

Iris cristata                                         Crested iris

Liatris pycnostachya                            Gayfeather, prairie blazing star

Monarda ssp                                        Beebalm

Penstemon digitalis ‘huskers red’         Beardtongue ‘husker red’

Stokesia laevis                                     Stokes’ aster

Symphyotrichum novae-angliae            New England aster

 

Partial Shade

Lower wetter section

Woody Plants

Cornus sericea                                     Red twig dogwood

Fothergilla gardenii                               Dwarf fothergilla

Hamamelis virginiana                           Witchhazel

Rhododendron canadense                     Rhodora, native rhododendron

Sambucus canadensis                          Black elderberry

 

Herbaceous

Chasmanthium latifolium                     Northern sea oats

Eupatorium purpureum                        Purple Joe-pye weed

Iris virginica                                         Southen blue flag iris

Lobelia cardinalis                                  Cardinal flower

Osmunda claytoniana                           Interrupted fern

Polemonium  reptans                           Jacob’s ladder

Solidago flexicaulus                              Zig zag goldenrod

 

Mid range medium moisture

Adiantum pedatum                              Maidenhair fern

Aquilegia canadensis                            Columbine

Dicentra eximia                                    Wild bleeding heart

Geranium maculatum                           Wild geranium

Phlox divaricata                                    Woodland phlox

Spigelia marilandica                              Indian pink

Viola labridorica                                  Labrador violet

Zizia aurea                                         Golden Alexander